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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23804950">The Case of Marching Boredom</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyGrey_BlackTea/pseuds/LadyGrey_BlackTea'>LadyGrey_BlackTea</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>MageFam Week 2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, MageFam Week (The Dragon Prince), Magefam, Muscleheads, Royalty</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 00:40:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,487</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23804950</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyGrey_BlackTea/pseuds/LadyGrey_BlackTea</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Human army was moving its way towards Xadian territory and Soren was getting bored. His dad had his bug-pal, his sister had his books and he... was left with Prince Kasef of Noodleoodlia. Meh.</p>
<p>Written for #MageFamWeek2020 – Day 4: Royalty, hosted by @yukifrill</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Claudia &amp; Soren &amp; Viren (The Dragon Prince), Soren &amp; Kasef (The Dragon Prince)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>MageFam Week 2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1712476</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Case of Marching Boredom</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This was written for MageFam week (and it alludes to their relationship, thus the tag), but it’s definitely Soren-focused. Just to let you know &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a glorious day when the Human army marched through the grassy fields on the way to the Breach. The sun shone bright in the blue sky devoid of clouds, making it possible to see very long distances ahead, at least for those in the front of the army queue. The morning air was crispy and clear, with the smell of wet grass and morning dew. Soren took a deep breath, stretched his arms up and he was bored to death. They have been traveling for days now, and he’s already seen it all: trees, hills, grass, dust, rocks. Next one, please.</p>
<p><em>I should try to talk to someone, maybe the hours will pass </em>faster, he thought.</p>
<p>Soren considered talking to his father, who was riding a bit ahead of him, leading the army marching its way across the country. The Crownguard still had mixed feelings about the crown that sat on his father’s head, the crown that he swore to protect when he was raised to the Crownguard ranks. If, in one hand, he was supposed to protect his King from... (<em>what was it called again? Could detach? Cup detox? Whatever...</em>) people trying to steal his crown, on the other hand Ezran himself had abdicated the throne to keep peace between Katolis and the other kingdoms’ armies that invaded its borders. And the one who took on the responsibility for the kingdom’s wellbeing was no else than Dad.</p>
<p>Even if the relationship between them has been weakening the last years, Soren still had a strong instinct to make his father proud. He’d been working hard to achieve Dad’s recognition for a very long time now, but everything he did seemed to fall short of Viren’s expectations. To make matters worse, the High Mage (<em>no, it’s the <span class="u">King</span> now, isn’t it?</em>) seemed to have grown colder during the weeks they’d been away. Soren was still haunted by Dad’s inhuman face when he’d charged them during their visit to his cell, but his father was the one wearing the crown now, which made Soren’s responsibility to protect him both as a Crownguard and as a son. But how to approach him?</p>
<p>
  <em>"Hey Dad, what’s up? How was Katolis while Claudia and I were away? What did you do to get imprisoned in a high security cell anyway?” Oh, it rhymed! But no, I don’t think Dad will answer me like this.</em>
</p>
<p>While he pondered how to better start a conversation, he noticed that Viren was talking to his bug-pal <em>again</em>. By his word, Dad had always had weird tastes, but this was in an entirely new level. There was no way Soren would get between his father and his purple creepy pet. He looked to Claudia at his side, but she was still reading her book and he knew by extensive experience that the only thing he’d get from her now would be “Um-hum”. That left him with... Prince Kasef of Noodleoodlia. Meh. On second thought, it’s better to talk to the Prince of the noodle kingdom than to keep bored.</p>
<p>“So... Kasef, right? How do you like Katolis so far?” Soren asked, having slowed down his horse to ride side by side with the other man.</p>
<p>“It’s fine,” Kasef answered him, shortly. After an awkward silence, he continued. “You Katolians have been blessed with a lush country, full of water and green everywhere,” he said, gesturing dramatically to the surrounding woods. “We don’t have the same advantage in Neolandia: our kingdom is mostly a desert and water is rare, so we need to be clever about our resources.”</p>
<p>“Oh, I see. It must be hard to keep horses, if you don’t have enough water.”</p>
<p>“It isn’t easy, but our horses are a different breed that can stand the heat better. They have bigger lungs and shorter bodies to move through the sand and dark coats to avoid sunburn.”</p>
<p>“So... your horses are dark, big chested and stocky because of the desert?” Soren asked, just to make sure.</p>
<p>“... Yeah, that’s the short version,” the dark man answered.</p>
<p>“Cool...”</p>
<p>The conversation died again, drowning them in silence (or as silent as it could be with the clip-clop of the horses and the sound of ten thousand soldiers marching behind them). Trees, hills, grass, dust, rocks... yup, nothing new here. Soren started to consider riding ahead and try to detach Claudia from her book at the cost of his dear life when Kasef spoke again.</p>
<p>“Er... so you like horses?”</p>
<p><em>Wow. Even Mr. Grumpy must be bored</em>, Soren thought.</p>
<p>“Uh... yeah, I do. Don’t you think horses are cool? They are fast and strong and can be real friends when they take a liking to you. And I like riding, it’s fun, you go to places and feel the fresh breeze... as long as you’re not behind someone else,” he said, raising an eyebrow in a knowingly look.</p>
<p>Kasef looked a bit disconcerted at the scatological reference. “Er... yes, I like horse riding too. And it’s a good exercise.”</p>
<p>“Right? Riding is excellent to strengthen your core muscles.”</p>
<p>“It’s more like a full body workout, it increases your balance and posture too,” Kasef suggested.</p>
<p>“It seems riding is also good for your quadriceps and hamstring muscles,” Soren added, helpfully.</p>
<p>“Yes, it’s a good leg workout too. Perhaps not as good as climbing stairs...”</p>
<p>“Climbing stairs does give you that good burn, but riding seems to work other muscles too, like your inner tights and pelvic muscles.”</p>
<p>“I remember getting sore when I started riding,” Kasef said.</p>
<p>“When did you start riding?”</p>
<p>“I could ride a pony around 3. You?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, me too. Clauds started riding around a bit later, I think around 5.”</p>
<p>“That explains how she can keep reading a book while riding, some people can’t even balance themselves in their saddles,” Kasef snickered.</p>
<p>“Ah, I know people like this,” the blonde chuckled. “Callum is totally helpless with riding, he’s been training horseback riding for years and he still struggles to stay in the saddle.”</p>
<p>“I’ve met Prince Callum in a previous visit with my father. He’s late King Harrow’s stepson, isn’t he?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. But Ezran isn’t much better either. And they are terrible with sword fighting. Can you imagine that Callum tried to go on a riding mission wearing ceremonial armor?” It seemed like a lifetime ago that Soren was sent to look for Moonshadow elves sneaking in the woods that surrounded Katolis Castle, but, come to think of it, it was merely some weeks ago.</p>
<p>“Pfft, ceremonial armor was made to look good, not to be useful. A scrawny prince should know better than to ride a horse in ceremonial armor, even more when he doesn’t have riding skills.”</p>
<p>It wasn’t untrue, but Soren still felt a bit annoyed. Callum was scrawny and clumsy, but he was his friend. The only ones who could badmouth Soren’s friends were him and Claudia.</p>
<p>“Still, Callum and Ezran have good qualities too. They’re kindhearted and fair, Callum can draw well and Ezran... he’s good with animals,” the blonde said.</p>
<p>“In times of war, we need strong rulers, not kind ones. And, to be honest, you and your sister look more royalty material than the previous Princes. You’re both tall, good looking and athletic, and you do what must be done,” Kasef conceded.</p>
<p>‘Previous Princes’. That phrase stroke through Soren’s body like a lightning, shattering his mind completely. It hadn’t dawned on him yet that Dad becoming <em>King Viren</em> meant that they were <em>Prince Soren</em> and <em>Princess Claudia</em>. How could he keep his position as a Crownguard if putting his life on the line to protect the throne and its heirs meant endangering the life he was supposed to protect? Soren knew he wasn’t a brainy guy, but even he knew that there was no way he could die to protect himself from dying.</p>
<p>Being a Crownguard was what he’d always wanted to be (well, except when his spine was broken and he couldn’t move. He thought he was going to become a poet then). Soren knew that his calling was to protect and serve the Crown, not <em>be</em> the Crown himself. Perhaps he could give up the throne in Claudia’s favor. <em>Queen Claudia</em> sounded a lot better than <em>King Soren</em> anyway, she is beautiful, smart and resourceful, and he knew he would gladly give up his life to save hers.</p>
<p><em>Yes, that’s it. I’ll talk to Dad later and let him know that Claudia should be his heir</em>, he decided.</p>
<p>Having finished his life-changing brainstorm inside his brain, he focused back into reality and noticed that Prince Kasef was looking at him, as if waiting for something. Oh yes, he was supposed to keep the chatting going on wasn’t him? But Soren didn’t feel like continuing the royalty conversation, so he decided to change the subject to something safer and harmless.</p>
<p>“So, what do you do to build muscle?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This prompt was a bit hard for me to develop, it was a bit more serious mood than the other MageFam works, but I hope I could set a light tone to make it more enjoyable and Soren-like.</p>
<p>I could definitely develop this work further for either Kaudia or Kasef/Soren (does this ship have a name? I kinda name it “Soref” to go with Sorgren and Sorvus). As a Soren stan, you can guess what my personal preference is(*) :3</p>
<p>Soren and Kasef share some of my favorite scenes from S3 (I literally watched Soren’s Noodleoodlia at least 5 times in a row) and I was sorry that THAT scene with Claudia, Soren and Kasef got deleted. They definitely spent lots of time together during the march towards Xadia and I like to believe that the three of them got closer during that time.</p>
<p>Thank you for reading! Let me know your thoughts or you can just chat/fangirl with me here or on Twitter uwu</p>
<p>(*) In case you haven’t guessed: bottom Soren FTW!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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